Sarkozy Warns China of Carbon Tariffs

Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has warned China that the EU could penalise cheap imports from high carbon-emitting countries in order to defend European companies that are obliged to meet strict environmental standards.

In a speech to students at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Mr Sarkozy urged China to shoulder its environmental responsibilities as a global economic power with some experts already saying it is the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide.

But he said the EU, which regards itself as the world’s pace-setter in fighting climate change, would not indefinitely let its companies bear the brunt of this campaign if countries that mass-produce cheaper goods delay adopting similar standards.

“I will defend the principle of a carbon compensation mechanism at the EU’s borders with regard to countries that don’t put in place rules for reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” Mr Sarkozy said.

Comments (2)

we need carbon footprints on products packaging , like Walker crisps have done, 75 grams CO2emmisions per a 25 Grams packet of crisps, this should be on all products, that way we decide if we should buy and support a product thats greener than another product